Hackers Anonymous Set Sail for Fed Reserve, Want Bernanke to Walk Plank
June 14th, 2011 · 2 Comments
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Hacker’s group Anonymous call for Fed bank boss Bernanke’s head as Net Wars heat up
By Erick Hansen
HOLLYWOOD, CA (Hollywood Today) 6/14/11 — “What good vs harm have I done? I take action based on my principals, freedom of information and freedom from oppression. History can sort out whether I was right or wrong.” – from “Anon” on Hollywood Today comments. (See HT article “WikiLeak’s Assange Behind 100s of Hackers? Arrest of 3 in Spain Tip of Iceberg”)
The group Anonymous, known for its high-profile attacks on government departments and companies like Sony has set its sights on some big game this time, nothing less than the Federal Reserve and its chairman Ben Bernanke, as well as the International Monetary Fund.
While Bernanke could probably weather out his emails blared on WikiLeaks or replacing his credit cards, potentially moving billions of dollars in Fed and IMF money around is another thing indeed.
Anonymous says they will start their attacks today, Flag Day in America, but the arrows will come from around the world. Besides the arrests in Spain, there have been arrests of 32 Anonymous members in Turkey in the wake of the pillaging of government websites in that country. The alleged hackers were rounded up in 12 cities.
The hacktivist’s favorite trick is distributed denial-of-service attacks (DDoS) against organizations and businesses that the group opposes. The group creates a flood of hits on the targeted sites, making them unavailable.
And the man, well 18-years-old anyway, behind some of the 17 separate hacks of Sony Corp., is a Lebanese loner with an old laptop and an iffy Internet connection. He calls himself “Idahc” and claims he wanted to help Sony by pointing out their poor security.
Wait, it gets better — if you can call this complex frenzy of neo anarchistic world attacks a game. A radical splinter group spun off Anonymous called LulzSec.
Idahc said it became “a game.” And now, he argues, he’s actually trying to make the Web more secure. “I did this to push Sony to pay more attention on their security and to show everyone that I.T security is fundamental,” he wrote to Andy Greenberg at Forbes. “I don’t hack for ‘lulz’ (joy of destruction or disruption) but for moral reasons.”
Originally a form of LOL (laugh out loud), the term has apparently taken a darker turn. The Encyclopedia Dramatica defines lulz as “the act of entertaining oneself with the misfortune of others.”
Idahc criticizes LulzSec’s recent escapades, like hacking the FBI program Infragard and the security firm Unveillance. “They shouldn’t play with the FBI,” he says. “I think this act falls on the black hat side.”
That is probably good advice, the FBI has platoons of Net-savvy, serious people – many once hackers themselves. The FBI knows too well the 17th Century proverb “set a thief to catch a thief.” It is either of French or English heritage, the countries actually argue over who came up with it first.
If you find some kid who can hack into the Strategic Air Command, it is better to hire him than to jail him – he knows all the tricks.
Bet Sony wishes they’d given Idahc a paycheck and a big screen TV rather than suffer his deeds at Sony in Canada, Portugal and Europe. He said he never contacted Sony to discuss the company’s security issues, and argues that the company wouldn’t have responded if he had. “The best way is to show in public some information like emails of the vulnerable server and they will directly correct the flaw.”
Now Anonymous has taken it to a new level. They uploaded a video message to YouTube yesterday calling for Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke to resign in a very menacing and dramatic fashion.
“Democrats have failed us, Republicans have failed us… It is time for us to stand up for ourselves… We must fight back against the organized criminal class… We must launch “operation Empire State rebellion. The operation will commence on June 14th…Operation Empire State Rebellion Engaged.”
A step up from pranksterism, according to some observers.
To make their case, they have presented a list of recent scandalous Federal Reserve actions. The group also provided a Google Map guide to a series of protests, aimed to “End the campaign finance and lobbying racket,” “Break up the Fed & Too Big to Fail banks,” “Enforce RICO laws against organized criminal class” and “Order Ben Bernanke to step down.”
The movement has also been referred to as, “CTRL+ALT_BERNANKE.” Ctrl-alt-delete is a powerful way for a computer to get rid of a troublesome file or program.
The video was published the same day that the “major IMF hacker breach” was reported by the New York Times. Anonymous previously warned that it would attack the World Bank on June 1st. However the IMF says the hack took place before the IMF chief, Dominique Strauss Kahn, was arrested for attempted rape on May 15.
Whatever happens, we are “living in interesting times,” another old proverb, this one meant as a curse.
Tags: Business · Law & Disorder · Media/journalism · New Media · Politics · Tech





2 responses so far ↓
1 GrabMyDeal // Jun 14, 2011 at 10:00 pm
Idahc is a good guy…
2 Anon // Jun 15, 2011 at 3:28 am
Encyclopedia Dramatica shut down recently. It’s been replaced by OhInternet. Please update your links!
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